Brutal Covid honesty: Real-time eugenics, Teachers suing education ministry, Masks really work, and more
Bonus Violet Affleck, cognitive dissonance, and more masks really work
We talk a lot about anger and disappointment these days.
In our leaders, in our families, in our friends, in anyone who we thought wouldn’t be “that person”.
We forget to talk about the grief associated with losing the people we once never imagined our lives without.
Welcome to the latest issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter!
So many of us are grieving the way we used to live, some of us feel it more deeply and some of us feel it less. We’ve all had to move beyond that old life and try to adapt to a new life. For some of us, it’s been a bit easier. For others, it has involved radical and devastating changes to safety and career prospects.
What’s the alternative? Lying to ourselves at the end of the world, as Jessica Wildfire puts it. But where does that put us? The cognitive dissonance of somehow sending the police to threaten parents of kids who are absent from school. But somehow at the same time, we can also be all about telling people to get go-bags ready just in case of another pandemic.
The real grief comes from seeing everyone else living like it’s 2019.
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As most have probably noticed, there is no paid subscription option for this newsletter. However, Substack does have an option where subscribers can pledge to subscribe “just in case” and a few kind subscribers have made that pledge. I very much appreciated the vote of confidence in what I’m doing here. What I’ve decided to do on a trial basis is to set up a “tip jar” on the Ko-fi platform. I’m not anticipating a huge surge of income from using Ko-fi but whatever revenue I do end up with, I plan to spend on supporting artists on Bandcamp. Sadly, who knows how long that will seem like a good idea.
Top Articles Everyone Should Read on Covid
Navigating the Long Haul: A Comprehensive Review of Long-COVID Sequelae, Patient Impact, Pathogenesis, and Management by Nishant Rathod Jr., Sunil Kumar, et al. / Cureus
Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Airborne Transmission: Science Rejected, Lives Lost. Can Society Do Better? by Lidia Morawska, William Bahnfleth, et al. / Clinical Infectious Diseases
Real Impact of COVID-19 Infection and Why We Should Care by Jeff Gilchrist, PhD
What COVID-19 Does To The Body (Fourth Edition, March 2024) / Pandemic Accountability Index
Let's Face It, Covid Trashed Our Immune Systems by Jessica Wildfire / OK Doomer
Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores by Ziyad Al-Aly / The Conversation
Honesty About Covid is Essential for Progress / John Snow Project
One of the criticisms often leveled at members of the Covid-cautious community is that they believe ‘everything is Covid.’ Critics say there is an element of alarmism or neurosis in the concerns this community has about COVID-19 because no pathogen could cause all the harms being laid at its door.
Unfortunately, the newest widely circulating pathogen in the human population uses a broadly expressed ACE2 receptor to infect cells1, meaning it can damage almost any part of the body. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, few people believed coronaviruses could linger in the body, but members of the John Snow Project outlined their concerns in 2021 because there was extensive evidence going back decades to suggest coronaviruses could persist. These concerns have since been shown to be justified, with numerous studies now demonstrating prolonged viral persistence and immune activation.
The combination of a widely expressed receptor and persistent infection means the acute and long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, can be unpredictable.
SARS-CoV-2 has also been shown to harm the immune system in various ways, many of which are common to other pathogens. This harm seems to have increased susceptibility to other pathogens such as dengue and strep A.
We Are Witnessing Real Time Eugenics... and People Don't Seem to Care by BroadwayBabyTO / The Disabled Ginger
But the people who are so angry about mandates didn’t stop there. They’ve stigmatized, teased and taunted those of us who still mask. They’ve done everything they can to prevent us from normalizing this TOOL to protect ourselves and others.
They’ve made it easy for governments to propose banning medical masks. When we cry out that this law could quite literally kill us? We’re gaslit and told it’s our own fault for supporting mandates in the beginning. That we are getting a taste of what they went through.
It’s painful to listen to. It’s not even remotely the same. We aren’t asking others to mask. We aren’t running up to people in public and trying to force a mask on their face. We just want to be able to protect ourselves. We want the freedom to wear one.
Yet these people who yelled about their freedoms nonstop for the last 4 years are currently laughing at the possibility we will lose the freedom to wear a medical mask. They’re telling us - once again - that if we don’t like it we should just stay home. They also refuse to acknowledge that not complying with mask mandates was never a criminal offence (that I’ve been able to find). It was treated like ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service.’ If you entered a public establishment without a mask you could be asked to leave and if you refused you could be arrested for trespassing. This is NOT the same as the proposed bill in North Carolina. It criminalizes the ACT of wearing a medical mask in public. Period.
Biden, CDC silent as North Carolina lawmakers vote to ban masks by Julia Doubleday / The Gauntlet
Mandy Cohen, our current CDC Director, is from North Carolina. She has yet to comment, instead appearing maskless indoors in Arizona to proclaim “it’s hot” during “Heat Awareness Week”.
President Joe Biden has yet to comment.
The White House has yet to comment.
The Republicans are to blame for this draconian, murderous new ground they’ve gained in their noble fight against public health and protecting sick people. The North Carolina House and Senate voted along party lines for the ban. Among other things, I deeply fear that another Trump presidency could drag us into an anti-mask hell unlike anything we’ve experienced yet, with nationwide criminalization on the table.
But the Democrats have done nothing to stop the Republicans as they hauled the Overton Window further and further and further right, and in fact began enabling them by promoting junk science to justify repeated COVID infections in the Biden era. North Carolina Democrats’ role in “fighting” this mask ban is the bare minimum of insisting on what was once the far-right stance; public health is a personal choice, and people should be able to make personal efforts to not be infected with deadly and disabling illnesses in public spaces, if they want to.
It was Democrats who stigmatized masking among the majority of the country who previously wore masks and saw them as a positive marker of community care. It is the Democrats who made masking and COVID safety so politically untouchable that even progressive organizations demand in-person attendance in offices and scoff at requests for accessibility.
Long Covid teachers join forces to sue ministers by Lucas Cumiskey / Schools Week
Long Covid Educators for Justice (LCEJ) wants compensation from the Department for Education for those who “lost their health, income and employment” after working on the frontline during the pandemic.
Founder Emily Mason said long Covid had been “catastrophic for people’s lives and careers”. Many had to leave the profession or take early retirement, leading to loss of income, she said.
“We were told to ‘go into schools, carry on keeping the country running, children have to be in school’. And we’re hung out to dry now when so many of us can’t work,” she said.
Teacher sickness absence skyrocketed by 56 per cent in the wake of the pandemic, DfE school workforce data for the 2021-2022 academic year previously revealed.
More than 3.2 million working days were missed because of illness that year, up from around 2 million in pre-pandemic 2018-19.
Masks work, our comprehensive review has found / Independent SAGE continues (original journal article)
Prof Trish Greenhalgh and colleagues have just published a peer-reviewed mega analysis of all the evidence out there on masks for respiratory infectious diseases - in particular Covid-19.
They end with six conclusions which are:
There is strong and consistent evidence for airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other respiratory pathogens.
Masks are, if correctly and consistently worn, effective in reducing transmission of respiratory diseases and show a dose-response effect.
Respirators (e.g. FFP2/FFP3 masks) are significantly more effective than medical or cloth masks.
Mask mandates are, overall, effective in reducing community transmission of respiratory pathogens.
Masks are important sociocultural symbols; non-adherence to masking is sometimes linked to political and ideological beliefs and to widely circulated mis- or disinformation.
While there is much evidence that masks are not generally harmful to the general population, masking may be relatively contraindicated in individuals with certain medical conditions, who may require exemption.
Masks work, our comprehensive review has found by Trish Greenhalgh, C Raina MacIntyre, David Fisman / The Conversation
When we looked at RCTs, we found that masks do protect in the community, and N95 respirators (masks made using higher-grade filtration material and designed to fit closely around the face to protect against airborne contaminants) are superior to masks in healthcare workers, especially when respirators were worn continuously at work. Non-RCT evidence also shows that masks work and respirators work better.
Let’s hope we’re not heading for another pandemic. But as we contemplate that possibility, the bottom line from our recent review is masks work. Along with improving indoor air quality and avoiding crowded, underventilated places, they provide the best way to avoid catching a respiratory infection. And our findings support previous advice to not just wear any mask but wear the best mask available.
The science is certain: masks work. Policy and practice must support their use by Amanda Kvalsvig, Michael Baker, Trish Greenhalgh / Public Health Communication Centre
Evidence from this review indicates that NZ is failing to benefit from the substantial protection provided by high-quality masks. NZ’s outdated mask policies and lack of support for masking in combination with its generally poor indoor air quality from lack of ventilation3 leaves the population exposed to a wide range of airborne infections that spread in crowded indoor spaces.
Covid-19 continues to evolve and circulate in our population year-round causing high levels of sickness, including Long Covid.4 5 NZ also experiences large numbers of hospitalisations and deaths each year from seasonal influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other infections. The risk of a large measles epidemic in the near future is very high. There is also growing concern about new pandemics that might arise from the ongoing spread of influenza A(H5N1) influenza (bird flu) or from bioengineered pathogens.6 All these diseases are spread by the airborne route, which means that masking will help reduce transmission.
Masks protect against multiple pathogens, including novel pandemic viruses for which there is no test, treatment, or vaccine. When community infection rates are high, masking in crowded indoor settings enables people to continue daily activities more safely. This approach is especially useful for infections such as Covid-19 where people may not have symptoms or know they are infectious.
Although mask uptake was high in NZ during earlier years of the Covid-19 pandemic, lack of Government support for masking meant that the initial high acceptance by the public never evolved into a cultural normality of wearing a mask when potentially infectious or at risk of infection, as happens in many Asian jurisdictions. This gap in our public health protections is seriously undermining our readiness for the winter respiratory season and our pandemic preparedness.7
What Is Violet Affleck Trying to Tell Us? by Danielle Cohen / The Cut
Over the weekend, every paparazzi lens in L.A. was turned toward Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez amid rumors the couple is heading for divorce. Between zoomed-in shots of Ben’s ring finger, the cameras also captured Violet Affleck, the 18-year-old daughter of Ben and his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, who has developed a bit of a fan base on COVID-conscious corners of Twitter for being one of the last face-mask-wearers in Hollywood. During a heavily papped family outing on Saturday, you did not have to look that closely to notice that, along with her usual 3M respirator, Violet was toting around some pointed reading: Steven Thrasher’s The Viral Underclass, an award-winning 2022 nonfiction book about disease and inequality.
The sighting has fueled speculation that Violet — who graduates high school this week — deliberately brought the book with her and angled its title outward, turning a paparazzi frenzy into an opportunity to raise awareness about public-health disparities. It’s not the first time she’s drawn attention to a cause simply by standing near one of her parents. In January, the teenager was seen shopping with Garner on Rodeo Drive while wearing Wear the Peace’s “Freedom Melon” sweatshirt, a garment printed with the global emblem of Palestinian solidarity, the sales of which go toward humanitarian aid in Gaza. In fact, her closet appears to be filled with political (or political-ish) tees, including one that recasts Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign with Succession’s Shiv Roy, replacing the word “HOPE” with “POWER.”
Hospital COVID patients 35% more likely to die than flu patients last winter, study suggests by Mary Van Beusekom / CIDRAP
During the 2023-24 respiratory virus season, hospitalized US COVID-19 patients were at a 35% higher risk for death from any cause than those admitted for influenza, compared with a 61% higher risk the winter before, estimates a research letter published today in JAMA.
Researchers from the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri mined US Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health records from all 50 US states for data on patients hospitalized for COVID-19 or flu from October 2023 to March 2024. The study period included the emergence of the JN.1 SARS-CoV-2 variant in December 2023. Follow-up was 30 days or until death. Causes of death weren't examined.
Study: Before vaccines, 44% of COVID-19 patients in ICU died by Stephanie Soucheray / CIDRAP
A new analysis of pre-vaccine data from scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that 18% of hospitalized patients and 44% of those admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) for COVID-19 died, with wide variations among different groups.
The study was published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases and is based on 2,479,423 cases from 21 jurisdictions with hospitalization information reported to the CDC from May 1, 2020, to December 1, 2020, to create a hospitalization dataset. The authors also analyzed 4,708,444 cases from 22 jurisdictions for a death dataset during the same time frame. The case-hospitalization dataset covers 25.5% of the US population, and the case-fatality dataset covers 43.7% of the US population, the authors said.
Before the mid-December 2020 introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, the pandemic caused approximately 480,000 hospitalizations, and 350,000 deaths in the United States.
"Few precise estimates of hospitalization and mortality rates exist in the COVID-19–naive population in the United States, especially among demographic and clinical subgroups," the authors said.
Data: Heart-failure patients have 82% better odds of living longer if vaccinated against COVID by Mary Van Beusekom / CIDRAP
Relative to one or no vaccination, COVID-19 vaccination was tied to an 82% lower risk of death from any cause, a 47% lower risk of hospitalization for heart failure, and a 13% reduced risk of infection over 6 months. Vaccination was also linked to significantly lower risks of stroke, heart attack, myocarditis/pericarditis, and venous thromboembolism.
"This was the first analysis of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in a large population of heart failure patients, and the first to show a clear benefit from vaccination," study coauthor Kyeong-Hyeon Chun, MD, said in the ESC news release.
"The study provides strong evidence to support vaccination in patients with heart failure," he added. "However, this evidence may not be applicable to all patients with heart failure, and the risks of vaccination should be considered in patients with unstable conditions."
The High-Risk/Low-Risk Fallacy: Part 1 / Pandemic Accountability Index
Sadly, this binary fallacy is now commonplace in pandemic policy and punditry - yet on its face, is completely absurd. Do Americans live in completely isolated pods? Do "high-risk" Americans need to don big yellow badges informing the "abled" that they can't afford "mild" COVID-19 infections - a serious proposal Scotland once suggested. Or does the reality of how many millions of Americans have been harmed by a socially transmitted, airborne virus shine a grim light on how truly interconnected we are as a society?
It’s long past time to deconstruct this "High-Risk," "Low-Risk" binary and toss it in the wastebin of pandemic history. …
So much of pandemic punditry treats human lives as little more than numbers on a spreadsheet to play with - marking off “disposable” souls to be crushed and quickly forgotten, and that there’s some sort of happy medium to be negotiated with unprofessionally dishonest, anti-vaccine quacks who can only derive self-worth by abusing their supposed “inferior” on social media.
New COVID variants are a reminder of coronavirus reality by Adriel Bettelheim / Axios
To most Americans, COVID-19 now ranks with everyday risks like reckless driving, smoking and drinking too much. But the emergence of new variants called FLiRT is a fresh reminder that the coronavirus still is circulating and evolving, even with hospitalizations at record lows.
Why it matters: As much as the public wants to move on — and has moved on — from the pandemic, uncertainty about the coronavirus' evolution means those who remain the most vigilant can't fully shake the pandemic experience.
Airborne pathogens: controlling words won’t control transmission by Trisha Greenhalgh, C Raina MacIntyre, Mark Ungrin, Julia M Wright / The Lancet
WHO has proposed new terminology for “pathogens that transmit through the air”. The stated rationale is that “[d]uring the pandemic, the terms ‘airborne’, ‘airborne transmission’, ‘droplets’ and ‘aerosols’ were used in different ways, by different stakeholders, which contributed to confusion in communicating how this pathogen was transmitted”. The report proposes that use of the unqualified terms airborne and airborne transmission in the context of infectious disease transmission should be avoided. It introduces new terms matched to specific definitions, including “through-the-air transmission”, “infectious respiratory particles”, “airborne transmission/inhalation”, “direct deposition”, “semi-ballistic”, and “puff cloud”.
As the report says, the terms waterborne and bloodborne have wide currency. But so do airborne and aerosol, which have existed for over a century. An 1897 paper2 stated: “every cough, sneeze and scream releases such droplets of sputum and oral secretions into the air in large quantities that they spread widely and float in the air for a long time”. A 1923 paper defined aerosol as “a system of particles of ultra-microscopic size dispersed in a gas”. The term is thus analogous to hydrosol, denoting particles suspended in an aqueous medium.
Clear and accurate communication about how respiratory pathogens spread is of the utmost importance globally. Confusion on this topic abounds, especially in relation to COVID-19, but there is a simple explanation. Strong and consistent evidence for a predominantly airborne mode of transmission emerged early in the pandemic4 but was denied or downplayed by WHO and national public health bodies for years. In November, 2022, WHO's outgoing Chief Scientist reflected that the organisation's greatest error in the pandemic was to deny early on that the virus might be airborne and design a global preventive strategy around an assumed droplet mode of transmission (ie, handwashing and surface cleansing).
Handwashing is still widely assumed to be the most important preventive measure against COVID-19, whereas precautions oriented to reducing airborne transmission (ie, improving indoor air quality and wearing high-quality, well-fitting masks in high-risk settings such as poorly ventilated spaces) are ignored or downplayed.
Beth Gibbons, Lost Changes.